I'm recruiting 2 beta tester with a few humbucker guitars like traditionnal PAF Les Paul or copies, Gibson SG, Yamaha SG series or similar stuff. Active PU may be tested but it's not the main target. If you got P90 or hollow-body guitars, you'll also be part of the next two dedicated packs tests.
You will need to write something like the great critical review from Fausto for each rig (see below) in English or French.
Please contact me via private messaging on the forum, you'll be rewarded with both the SC pack and the HB pack.
examples (you don't need to be that positive, but honest and impartial:)
Here I am with my impressions about your Single Coil Pack.
First of all, let me say that they sound great and I really love them (but you probably already know that…).
I tested them the last weekend playing with 5 different guitars:
- Fender Stratocaster American Deluxe HSS 2011 (with the original Fender N3 pickups);
- Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop HSS 1996 (Seymour Duncan pickups, ’59 Custom Hybrid Trembucker at the bridge and two Vintage Hot Stack Plus at the neck and central);
- Jackson Soloist SL-1 SSH. The pickups are from Bill Lawrence (neck and bridge) and Seymour Duncan (central position) but I don’t know which model;
- PRS Custom 24 with original pickups (only with 5-way blade in position 4, with Neck and Bridge humbuckers splitted Singlecoil)
- Peerless Monarch with original pickup.
For my test the KPA was connected to a pair of active Atomic Amps CLR, wedge version.
First of all, I want to underline that, as far as the guitars are concerned, your rigs sound very different changing instruments, that is good. For me this is a great quality because you can personalize your sounds and find the undertones you are looking for.
DRY CLEAN
Good enough with both the Stratocasters, not with the splitted humbuckers of the PRS (it sounded too dry and nasal). As you wrote, it takes FX very well and also some stomps in front of the KPA. It’s probably the clean tone I liked less but just because of my personal taste: too bright and dry for me.
FULL CLEAN
No doubt this is THE Clean Tone, my favorite indeed. You can play everything with it and it sounds outstanding with all guitars. If I had to keep just one clean tone in my KPA, that would be the one. No flaws or bugs. It sounded tremendous even with the Peerless Monarch. Using the central pickup of both the Stratocaster it gives you back that “twang” that reminds you a Telecaster. Great with Chorus and WRM. Very jazzy just closing a bit the tone knob of every guitar I had. It was possible to play smoothly and softly even with the Jackson Soloist!
What else? Five stars rate. Don’t change anything!
BRIGHT CLEAN
You have already realized that I don’t like bright tones too much but is not bad, especially for strumming and with a wah. It is bright but not dry. Using the neck pickups, the sound is still warm and rounded.
DIMED CLEAN
Among my favorites. It’s a nice match between this rig and the Full Clean. It is crystal clear and jazzy. Very nice also with the chorus. Activating the distortion it remains rounded and well-balanced, not too intrusive. Outstanding for blues (with the distortion it sounds close to Hendrix tone) or modern jazz. Probably the best one to be used with splitted humbuckers.
CRUNCH1
At the very beginning I was very perplexed because playing my Stratocaster Deluxe with the original N3 pickups (which are low output pickups) it sounded absolutely clean. Not crunch at all, not even picking strongly on the strings. Changing guitar things became different and crunch came out.
It was very bluesy and intriguing with the other Stratocaster and with my Jackson.
CRUNCH2
Again, my first Stratocaster sounded almost clean but now we know that it depends on its pickups.
However, it’s really more driven than the Crunch 1 and good for blues solos.
It reminds me some Fender tones.
DRIVE1
Reading your notes I thought it was more aggressive. The growl is not too much and in my opinion it is closer to crunch sounds than to driven sounds.
Probably it is just a question of mental categorisations. To me it is better for rhythm than for lead tone.
DRIVE2
That’s the drive I wanted to find. If you like British sounds of the 80s and 90s this is for you. If you prefer the American tones, go for the lead 1 and 2 rigs. Rock solos are under your fingers with this rig.
What you wrote (adjust the guitar volume instead of the gain to lower the drive) is absolutely true. Playing my guitars at 70-80% of volume was my favorite setting.
JIMI
Wow, wow, wow!
I deleted my previous Hendrix tones (I had a fistful even if Hendrix is not in my repertoire) and now I play just this one. I’m not kidding you: this is the best Hendrix tone I’ve played so far with a Kemper. In my opinion it is to be used exclusively with the neck pickup.
It’s a rig with which a guitarist can show his ability to play dynamically, not only turning the volume knob on the guitar but also picking hardly and softly the strings. This rig is responding exceptionally to your touch. Let me say that it is good for a “modern Hendrix”.
VOXY
I am not an expert of old time rock’n roll and early (Who/Led Zep stuff), so I can’t say very much about this tone. I never played a Vox amp before, neither I downloaded a Vox rig. This is why my opinion would not be reliable. I’d say that it sounds nice (also with the distortion) but it’s not “my sound”.
LEAD1
This rig is very well done but, in my opinion, it is to be tweaked in order to find your particular sound. In my case, closing the tone (a little bit on the KPA, almost completely on the guitar) it was perfect for fusion because it becomes very liquid and fat.
LEAD2
Unquestionably a nice tone: fat, warm but still well defined. It’s a modern lead tone.
Final score of your pack: 9/10 (if it can help you, I’ve never found a 10/10 pack…)
CONGRATULATIONS! GREAT WORK!
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